By Matt Kyle | Staff Writer
A typical day for Waco senior Harris Siddiq consists of heading to class from noon to 4 p.m., going to work at 8 p.m., then hopping on Twitch to stream Call of Duty: Warzone from 11 p.m. until around 4 or 5 a.m. While Siddiq said his schedule is hectic, he said it is worth it to connect with people.
Siddiq streams under the name “MrDaft” and currently has about 5,000 followers and 1,000 subscribers. Siddiq also DJs; he performed at the homecoming bonfire and is set to DJ Joy and Lady’s upcoming birthday party. He also works at the McLane Student Life Center as an F45 trainer.
Siddiq said he streams because of the community he has created with his fans.
“I don’t stream because I’m just good at the game,” Siddiq said. “I know the people that come into my chat. I know these people at a personal level. I really do it to build a community. I don’t sit there. I’m not a robot. I talk to people. I ask them about their day.”
Siddiq said he got into streaming his senior year of high school. He said his Catholic high school held a contest to see who could design the best pro-life billboard. Siddiq said he won the contest and used the prize money to buy everything he needed to start streaming.
However, once he started at Baylor, Siddiq said he couldn’t make time for streaming between his schoolwork and job as an F45 trainer. It wasn’t until COVID-19 forced everyone to stay home that he finally returned to streaming.
“COVID happened and Call of Duty: Warzone dropped, and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to come back to streaming,” Siddiq said. “Everyone’s at home. It’s a perfect time, with people for you to watch and people for you to connect with.”
Through streaming, Siddiq said he met SuperDuperKyle, a rapper and singer who also streams Warzone. Siddiq said he began playing with Kyle and impressed him enough that the rapper invited him to play with his professional team that competes in Warzone tournaments and signed Siddiq as a content creator under SuperDuperGaming.
Siddiq competed with Kyle at the MFAM Gauntlet, a Warzone tournament hosted by popular Twitch streamer NICKMERCS. Siddiq said Team SuperDuperKyle was considered an underdog, but it beat other skilled teams led by other popular streamers like LEGIQN and TimTheTatman to claim the $20,000 prize.
“It was nerve-wracking, to say the least,” Siddiq said. “I believed in myself. I knew how good I was. I knew my skills were just as good as these guys, and we were able to come up top. It was amazing. I’ve never felt that happy in my life. Taking that I had never played competitively before, in order to come in there in my first tournament, to be able to win it like that was insane.”
Siddiq has since competed in a number of other tournaments, including the Barstool Collegiate Gaming Championship last April. He competed with Baylor’s Warzone team and placed second. Baylor competed against schools across the U.S., including Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State.
Parsa Safa, a Baylor alum who played on the team last year, said Siddiq joining the team elevated it to new heights.
“He was one of the best players by far,” Safa said. “He got the most kills out of everyone in the whole tournament. He carried us to that second place.”
Currently, Siddiq is the only player on the Warzone team, as all the other players were seniors and graduated. Siddiq said he is trying to recruit players in preparation for the next Barstool tournament.
Siddiq said he is thankful for every opportunity streaming has offered him.
“I would never have thought in my life a kid from Waco, Texas, going to Baylor University would be able to play with all these big stars and connect with all these new people,” Siddiq said. “I was in LA with [Kyle] this summer [and] some of the FaZe guys. I was able to go to the Nuke Squad house — that’s a FaZe house in Beverly Hills. It’s just been crazy how many people I have been able to connect with and within just one year.”
Siddiq said everything he does is to make people happy.
“At the end of the day, I do what I do to really put a smile on people’s faces,” Siddiq said. “When I go into F45, people are smiling. When I stream, I make sure people are smiling. When I DJ, I make sure people are smiling. I just try to be positive. I try to put a positive outlook on everything. I’ve had numerous people come into my stream and tell me, ‘Hey, man, like I had a really bad day. Thank you for streaming. This has helped me get away from my problems.’ And that’s exactly why I do this.”
